IMSA eyeing new locations for upcoming calendars

Is the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship set to visit a new venue before the end of the decade? IMSA President John Doonan says he and his team are actively looking for new markets to add to the schedule as early as 2028.

Speaking with RACER last weekend at Road America, he explained that IMSA wants to keep the calendar feeling fresh, adding value to teams & partners, and capitalize on the recent growth in the championship’s audience since the DPi era transitioned to GTP.

“As we look to the 2028 schedule, we are continuing to look at other venues and other markets where we could race,” he said. “We have to do that tactically, strategically because we don’t just want to throw another event on the calendar to raise budgets for the teams and OEMs and partners.

“We need to be sensible about how to do it. But we are always on the hunt for the market that wants IMSA. We are on the hunt for the market that the OEMs and partners want to activate in. So I think in 2028, the goal is to continue to keep it fresh and unveil the calendar next March at Sebring. We are always trying to piece it together, working out where it would be.”

As for which circuits are in the frame, and whether there’s potential for the new race to become an additional Endurance Cup round, Doonan is assessing multiple options. It has also not been decided whether this race would be an additional race on the calendar or replace an existing event.

“Hard to say,” he said when asked whether the new race could be an Endurance Cup race. “I think a lot of it just comes down to budget for the teams. I think we want to make sure that we’re doing well by maintaining and making sure that we’re staying sensible about the budgets.

“If it were to be a West Coast race for example, we’d want to do it adjacent to Long Beach and Monterey, so the teams only have one trip across the country. You know, your April in Long Beach, your May at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Could you do something adjacent? I don’t know.

“The Pacific Northwest has also been on my mind a long time,” he added. “That’s a very special, enthusiastic car culture market, especially exotic sports cars and that type of thing. So, but you want to do it in a manner that makes sense for the teams and the partners. So we’re not just jacking up the budgets.”

One option that does appear to be off the table is for the IMSA SportsCar Championship to follow NASCAR in racing on the street track at Mexico City, which the FIA World Endurance Championship previously visited back in 2016 and 2017.

“At the moment, our current agreement in partnership with the ACO has us racing in North America, so the 50 United States or Canada. So right now, that’s what we’re in agreement to do, at least with the WeatherTech Championship,” he explained.

“But you never know about some other alternatives. NASCAR has raced in Mexico recently. Maybe there’s a chance that other opportunities come up where we could do something like that with one of the other series.”

If NASCAR returns to the streets of Chicago in the future, though, Doonan teased that it could open the door to another double-header weekend.

“It’s no secret I’m a Chicago boy, so I love that NASCAR did the Chicago Street Race,” he said. “Who knows if that were to come back, and that’s really for NASCAR to announce. Could you send a series or two there? You never know.”